Smart Matrix System: Prepaid phone recharges

Founded in late 2010, Smart Matrix System pairs the concept of prepaid cell phone airtime with a matrix MLM compensation backend.

There is little background information on the company provided except that their corporate office is supposedly based in Houston, Texas in the United States (no specific address is provided). The domain ‘smartmatrixsystem.com’ is registered anonymously in Panama.

Smart Matrix System lists its CEO as ‘Cynthia Solomon’ and CFO as ‘Jarina Mohammed’, however I was unable to find any further information on these two people (specifically any background in MLM opportunities).

Read on for a full review of the Smart Matrix System MLM opportunity.

The Product

Smart Matrix System claim that their product is prepaid phone service recharges, however these are all offered via third parties. At best Smart Matrix System are independent affiliates of the companies they sell recharge services of meaning they just act as a middleman.

As far as the Smart Matrix System opportunity goes, its members only sell membership to the company itself.

From the company’s own FAQ:

If you want to get a $1.00 reward towards your next month’s airtime purchase, you need to become a member of Smart Matrix System.

Smart Matrix System do waive waives the entry-level “Bronze Matrix” membership fee ($5) if you purchase prepaid airtime from them but the fact remains you still need to sign up as a member meaning true retail does not exist within the opportunity.

You can however join Smart Matrix System and earn commissions without ever selling or bothering with marketing prepaid recharges though (by selling company memberships).

The Smart Matrix System Compensation Plan

The Smart Matrix System compensation plan, as the name suggests, revolves around a 5×6 matrix compensation structure.

A 5×6 matrix places you at the top and 5 legs underneath you (your level 1). In turn, these five legs branch out into another 5 legs (level 2) and so on and so forth down 6 levels for a total of 19,530 member positions.

The first few levels of a 5×6 matrix look something like this:

Using this matrix compensation structure, Smart Matrix System break down their members into a series of matrices, Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum. Each of these matrices pays out a slightly higher commission per month per member in the matrix.

Bronze Matrix ($4,874.50 total payout)

level 1 = 15 cents per member (5 positions, total payout is 75 cents)

levels 2 and 3 = 20 cents per member (150 positions, total payout is $35)

levels 4 to 6 = 25 cents per member (19,375 positions, total payout is $4843.75)

Silver Matrix ($9,344 total payout)

level 1 = 15 cents per member (5 positions, total payout is 75 cents)

level 2 = $1 per member (25 positions, total payout is $30)

level 3 = 30 cents per member (125 positions, total payout is $37.50)

level 4 = 35 cents per member (625 positions, total payout is $218.75)

level 5 = 40 cents per member (3,125 positions, total payout is $1,250)

level 6 = 50 cents per member (15,625 positions, total payout is $7812.50)

At the Silver Matrix membership level, Smart Matrix System will also pay out an additional $1 per month for each Silver, Gold or Platinum member in your matrix.

Gold Matrix ($16,777 total payout)

level 1 = 15 cents per member (5 positions, total payout is 75 cents)

level 2 = $1.55 per member (25 positions, total payout is $38.75)

level 3 = 40 cents per member (125 positions, total payout is $50)

level 4 = 45 cents per member (625 positions, total payout is $281.25)

level 5 = 50 cents per member (3,125 positions, total payout is $1,562.50)

level 6 = 95 cents per member (15,625 positions, total payout is $14,843.75)

At the Gold Matrix level, Smart Matrix System will also pay out an additional $3 per member in your matrix who is either a Gold or Platinum Matrix member and $2 for any Silver Matrix members.

Platinum Matrix ($16,777 total payout)

The Platinum Matrix payouts are the same as the Gold Matrix payouts with the exception of the additional commission paid out for each member in your matrix who is a Gold or Platinum Matrix member.

Whereas the Gold Matrix pays out an additional $3 per member who is a Gold or Matrix member, the Platinum Matrix raises this to $4 per member.

Platinum members also earn an additional $50 commission for each ‘Platinum Smart Builder Package’ they sell ($240). Note that only members who purchase prepaid airtime are eligible for this additional recruitment commission.

$10 is offered on the sale of Platinum Smart Builder Packages sold by any members in your downline (in your matrix).

Car Bonus

For Platinum members who recruit at least 100 Platinum Matrix members themselves and have filled up at least 80% of their 5×6 matrix (15,624 member positions), Smart Matrix System will pay out a Car Bonus of “up to $1000″ each month.

The car bonus is capped at $75,000 in total.

$1 Prepaid Airtime Bonus

Each month if a Smart Matrix System member purchases prepaid airtime through the company, the company will pay them a $1 rebate.

Joining Smart Matrix System

Membership to the Smart Matrix System begins at the Bronze Matrix level, which is free for members who purchase prepaid airtime from the company or sold at a cost of $5 a month to anyone else.

All other membership levels within the Smart Matrix System must be bought and are priced as follows:

Platinum Matrix Membership – $240 one time membership cost and then $40 a month with prepaid airtime purchase or $45 a month without

Bundled with each membership option is also a series of member benefits (most of which appear to be third-party coupon related).

Conclusion

Essentially serving as an affiliate reseller for third-party phone service carriers, the Smart Matrix System boils down into a recruitment based scheme that near exclusively relies on the recruitment of new members and ongoing membership fees being paid.

Members receive a $1 rebate on the purchase of airtime however there is no commission offered on the sale of airtime to other members, rather members are merely rewarded for recruiting new members with 100% of these commissions being paid out of membership fees.

Looking at the various levels of the matrix, even with the purchase of prepaid airtime, the more members pay the more commission they earn and all of the bonuses are geared to the Platinum Matrix Level. The aim of course being to get members to pay the $240 one time fee and then $40/$45 a month to sustain the scheme for as long as possible.

Being a matrix based system with commissions tied into new members it’s simply not possible to earn anything (except the $1 rebate on your prepaid airtime purchase, which I suspect is paid via the third-party phone carriers rather than by Smart Matrix System itself), without the recruitment of new members (either yourself or via spillover via upline recruitment).

Furthermore it is only after the recruitment of three new paying members that Smart Matrix System members can actually earn on all six levels of their matrix (they don’t mention how many levels you earn on if this recruitment requirement is not met).

Ongoing membership fees will keep this obvious pyramid scheme going for a while but ultimately there’s an onus for those at the bottom of the pyramid to go out and recruit new members. With no other revenue source available to the company once new members stop signing up those at the bottom will stop earning (empty matrices) and this in turn will then slowly trickle up the company.

The end result? Commissions stall and the opportunity falls apart. Kind of ironic for a company that calls itself ‘Smart Matrix System’.